The Paris stock market took off like a bullet after the ECB's press release confirming a 50-pt increase in the key interest rate.
The CAC40 climbed 1.2% to around 7,170 points, driven in particular by Publicis (+6.3%), Dassault (+8%), and Capgemini (+5%).
At 21,050pts, the CAC40 "global return" set a new all-time record (yes, an all-time record, with economic conditions - including much higher interest rates - and geopolitical conditions notoriously less favorable than on January 5, 2022, the date of the previous record).

The Euro-Stoxx50 soared +1.6% to set a new annual zenith at 4,240, in the wake of a DAX in full incandescence with +2% at 15,480, gaining +31% in 4 months to the day, one of the strongest rises in history, and by far the strongest during a rate hike cycle... and that's unheard of when growth falls to zero in the meantime.
On Wall Street, the day after a +2% surge, the Nasdaq soared by a further +2% (i.e. +15% since January 1st, the best first 5 calendar weeks in history) in the wake of META, which exploded by +20%, and Amazon, which soared by +6%.

The ECB thus reassured the markets (without using an overly aggressive tone), which had been comforted in their scenario of falling inflation (Jerome Powell pronounced the word 'disinflation').
The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by just 25 basis points last night, adopting a less aggressive approach in its fight against inflation.... and when it claims that rates won't come down until the end of 2023, Wall Street -euphorically- clearly doesn't believe it and continues to bet on a 'pivot' in the second half of 2023.

The market only hears what it wants to hear (prices are a 'declining dynamic') and ignores the promise of further rate hikes this year (at least 2, bringing Fed Funds to 5.00/5.25%), without ever showing the will to end its monetary tightening cycle in the immediate future.

Today's figures are largely overshadowed by the central banks' 'dovish' messages: non-farm productivity in the USA rose by 3% annualized in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to a preliminary estimate from the Labor Department, following a 1.4% decline in the previous quarter.

This significant gain reflects a 3.5% increase in output, while the number of hours worked rose by just 0.5%. Given a 4.1% increase in hourly wages, unit labor costs rose by 1.1%.
The labor market continues to show disconcerting strength: US unemployment benefit registrations fell by 3,000 in the week to January 23, to 183,000 according to the Labor Department (a 50-year low!).).

In addition, the four-week moving average - considered a better indicator of the underlying trend in the job market - showed a week-on-week decline of 5,750 to 191,750.
Finally, the number of people receiving regular benefits fell by 11,000 to 1,655.000 in the week to January 16, the last week available for this statistic.

The day also promises to be particularly busy on the results front, with expected publications from ABB, Eli Lilly, Merck, Roche, Shell, Honeywell, Santander, Ferrari and Infineon on today's agenda.

Tonight, after the close of the US markets, US tech giants Apple, Alphabet, Amazon.com will also be taking part.

Faced with this busy agenda, the macroeconomic menu looks less heavy, although this afternoon in the United States, market participants will take note of figures for jobless claims, fourth-quarter productivity and industrial orders.

In company news, Publicis Groupe reports recurring EPS for 2022 up 26% to 6.35 euros, and free cash flow of 1.7 billion euros, with operating margin up 50 basis points to 18%, and net income up 20% to nearly 12.6 billion euros.

Air Liquide announced on Thursday that it would be joining forces with TotalEnergies to develop a network of hydrogen stations for heavy goods vehicles in Europe.

TotalEnergies announced that it had decided to increase the bonus budget for non-managerial employees (blue-collar workers, white-collar workers, technicians and supervisors) by 15% in 2022 compared with 2021, as well as the budget for variable portions for managers in France.

For 2022, Dassault Systèmes is reporting 19% growth in non-IFRS EPS to 1.13 euros, with a non-IFRS operating margin down 0.9 points to 33.4%, but sales of nearly 5.67 billion euros, up 9% at constant exchange rates.

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